


> Vriska: trigger events

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-08
Updated: 2011-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-27 02:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/290484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vriska's revenge on Aradia goes just as she'd planned. But even her vision eightfold couldn't have forseen any good coming from it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	> Vriska: trigger events

* * *

  
It started out as a typical night. I was on my computer, wrestling ~ath code into submission, along with about fifty other projects. Slowly, though, I began to feel a prescence in my mind, distinct from the many voices of the imminently deceased - one of whom sounded horribly familiar, but I couldn't place who it was. I ignored it, and concentrated on blocking what I recognized as Vriska's influence, hoping luck was with me. It would seem that it wasn't; she quickly took control of my body, making me stand up and walk over to the mind honey, taking out a handful.

If I could have, I would have gulped; whatever she was planning, it couldn't be good. And it wouldn't be pleasant for me, either.

She made me walk to my window and leap out, and I briefly wondered if she planned to make me go splat. She didn't, though; I felt my body being gripped by my own psionic abilities, and I hurtled off into the night, Bicyclops grunting queryingly after me.

For a while, I flew through the night, the time passing uneventfully... which brings us to now, I guess. It seems I've become wrapped up in remembering the events, and narrating to you; sometimes I start to engage the voices, call it a character flaw on my part. It helps pass the time when I'm bored.

Oh, huh, it looks like we're somewhere I recognize. I can't quite place it, though... is that a hive in the distance? And ruins... Aradia! Why is Vriska making me go to Aradia's hive? And why has she... why am I holding... oh, no... oh god no...

And now I'm here. I can't stop myself... I'm just hovering outside the hive... undoubtedly, Vriska's telling Aradia I'm here right now. Please, Aradia, don't come to the window... don't come outside...

I'm removing my glasses. I guess this is confirming what I had suspected... and I guess now I've identified that voice. Please, Vriska, don't make me do this... please, duality, if you ever worked for me, free me from her control...

I guess there's no escaping this. If there was, though, her voice wouldn't be among the masses... nor would it be the very loudest. She doesn't have long left... and now my hand is bringing the honey to my mouth... ugh, this stuff is sickeningly sweet. And my head... this influx of energy hurts like nothing else, it's desperately seeking escape. Bleeding away into the air around my eyes... a horrible, ominous glow illuminating the area.

And she has come to the window. Damn you, Serket... why me? Why must you use me, of all people? Do you just love causing as much misery and sorrow as you can? You could have chosen Terezi, or Karkat... or Gamzee, if you wanted to go for sick humor. But me? Her matesprit? You're evil, Serket, and don't pretend you can't hear me, I know that you can. You're in my mind controlling my every move, there's no way you can't hear me.

Oh, god... that expression on her face. She's so happy to see me, that beautiful smile... she still hasn't processed that I have my glasses off, nor that I have mind honey in my hand, nor even that psionic power is leaking into the cool night air... the last night she'll ever get to experience.

And she's beginning to process it. I guess she saw the light... what an ironic turn of phrase. Her eyes, those wonderful eyes, are filling with dismay... her smile is falling, becoming an expression of fear... tears, rusty red tears, welling up in her eyes... streaming down her face as her computer beeps, indicating a message. That's you, isn't it Serket, saying goodbye in that awful cheerful way you have.

I feel the energy welling up in my head, gathering behind my eyes in preperation of release... she's begging now. She's on her knees, her hands clasped, tears pouring down her face continuously... Aradia, I wish so much that I could stop this. Why are you making me do this, Vriska... can't you take me instead? Just take me, and let her live... oh god, no...

The energy has built up to a level that can't be contained now... she seems to have resigned herself to it... somehow that's even worse. She's looking right into my eyes... wants her last moments to be spent with me, even though that means looking directly at her demise... forgive me, Aradia, I did everything I could...

And the energy bursts out of my head, twin beams of light vaporizing everything they touch, a hideous crater gouging itself out of the ground. And she's gone... her body incinerated, there's no way she could be revived even if I knew how... I failed you, Aradia, I'm so sorry...

* * *

Poor, poor Sollux. Vriska made you do a horrible thing today. She's released you from her grip, though, so I suppose now I should help you. If I simply put you to sleep... that should let me get you back to your hive, I suppose. So if I simply... yeah, that does it. You're so adorable when you're asleep, you know. Leaving the troubles of the waking world behind... and having to kill me must count as a big trouble to bear.

Your glasses, discarded, float back to your face and settle back into their accustomed place. The honey vanishes from your hand, the stickiness fading away; the tears of pain from the exertions of your attack wipe away and hover briefly in mid-air, while I move my hand around them, observing how they move in response to my gestures. It seems my own psionic abilities have recieved something of an upgrade from all this; perhaps this is something for which I can be thankful.

Gently raising you into the air, I place my incorporeal arms under you, doing the closest I can to holding you. I take the scenic route to your hiveblock, stroking your forehead occasionally as you whimper in your sleep, plagued by your usual nightmares of death and pain - thankfully, I can keep the worst of them from your mind, though I need most of my power to stop you falling. I fly over the locations of our dates, remembering each one in turn. The beach where we collected seashells and fought the lusus that tried to eat us... the hillside, where we sat and watched the moon set before sharing our first kiss... the location of our very first "date", as it were, though it was more just two wigglers playing together as their red feelings bloomed. And all too soon we're at your hive, and I fly to the window you... jumped out of, I guess? Whatever. Floating slowly through the window I cup your cheek in one ghostly hand, wishing I could feel your skin. I place you in your recupracoon, giving you one last kiss - and for your sake, I call up into your mind the memory of our best kiss, giggling slightly at your reactions to it.

One last longing look at you and I know I should leave, before I find myself unable to ever leave your presence. I drift away through the ceiling and briefly stop to chat mind-to-mind with Bicyclops, explaining that his kid would be very sad for a while. He grunts, and I think he understands, just about; he's so hopped-up on mind honey that it's hard to tell, but he grunts at me with a sad look, at least. I depart, testing just how fast I can go; suddenly accelerated to a speed that would have been breathtaking if I still had lungs, it takes a few short minutes before I reach what was once my hive.

I look around the wreckage sadly, finding the back half of my Lusus; she was sleeping at the time, powerless to escape the blast. I float her over to the forest, leaving her at the edge; she'll provide something a nice meal tonight, at the very least. I keep looking through the rubble, and find something that fills me with hope: my computer survived the blast, I can still access Trollchat! I have a way to contact Sollux!

But that can wait; he will be asleep for a while. For now, I should pay Vriska a visit.

* * *

I wake up in my recupracoon. My heart lifts; could it have been a dream? Is there a possibility that I didn't kill my wonderful Aradia? But then I look at my window, a hole in it where I leapt out, and suddenly the weight of Alternia itself is on my shoulders. I have to investigate.

It takes fully ten minutes flying as fast as I can bear to reach her hive, but the scar on the land is visible from a massive distance. Mustard-yellow tears begin to stream down my face as I approach the site; hovering over the wreckage, my heart seems to tear in two; how can I live on without her? How can I go on, knowing that my hands - or rather, my eyes - were responsible for her demise? I set myself down on the ground, sobbing loudly. I raise my face to the sky, tear off my glasses, and release a blast into the openness, hoping that some god will see it and be angered; perhaps he could smite me down and I could be with her again. No such luck; all I'm left to do is to scream wildly into the air. "Why diidn't you take me? Plea2e, plea2e briing her back - take me iin2tead! Plea2e..."

* * *

I'm out flying through the woods, enjoying the feel of passing right through the trees, when I see him firing his signal wildly into the air. It must be visible for miles around; a massive, red-and-blue helix of psionic power, stretching into the sky for who knows what distance. Turning towards it, I fly back as fast as I can manage, reaching my hive in a matter of seconds. He doesn't have his computer with him, so I can't contact him that way; all else I can think of is to simply carve my words into the very ground.

...Well, it should get the point across, anyway.

* * *

Oh god, what's Vriska doing now? How is she pulling off such an illusion without me feeling her prescence? If I didn't know better, I'd swear that letters are being carved into the ground by some unseen source.

S0LLUX

S0LLUX, ITS 0K

I D0NT BLAME Y0U

That... that psychopathic spider. As though it weren't enough that she made me kill the one I loved, now she's trying to make me think she might still be alive? Only to crush my heart again, no doubt. I'm not taking this, I'm fed up with her crap.

A single blast is sufficient to wipe away the words, admittedly along with the ground around it. I raise my face to she sky and scream at Vriska, hoping that wherever she is and however she's doing this, she can hear me.

* * *

"vrii2ka! ii 2wear, iif you don't 2top thii2, ii wiill per2onally hunt you down and make you pay!"

Oh, god... he thinks it's another of her tricks. And he's looking right at me while he shouts... not that he can know that, of course, but it still makes my nonexistent heart leap for the briefest of seconds. I have to make him realize it's not her.

Raising my arm slightly, the words begin to form again, even bigger this time.

S0LLUX, ITS N0T VRISKA

I AM THE 0NE WRITING, S0LLUX

ITS ME

PLEASE G0 H0ME AND WE CAN TALK 0N TR0LLCHAT

ITS A L0T EASIER THAN THIS

* * *

"oh 2ure, ii'm goiing home alriight. but ii'm not goiing to lii2ten to your crap! ii'm goiing 2o that i can avoiid damagiing thii2 place any more, you hear me? DO YOU HEAR ME, VRII2KA?"

And with those words, I erase her damnable carvings and fly away, still sobbing to myself. Who does Serket think she is, trying to traumatize a lovestruck Troll boy?

* * *

It's frankly heartbreaking to see him so upset, but getting him away from here is the best thing that can be done for now. I leave a suitable interval before floating down to my computer and booting up Trollchat.

* * *

Bicyclops grunts at me as though he has something to say as I approach the hiveblock, but I'm in no mood to listen. I hurl myself through the window, landing right in front of my computer as it happens. While the bees continue to buzz in the background, I notice that I have a message... from ApocalypseArisen?

\-- apocalypseArisen [AA] began trolling twinArmaggedons [TA] \--

TA: fuck off vrii2ka, ii'm not goiing two talk two you.   
AA: s0llux, h0w can i make y0u see that its n0t her   
TA: and how the fuck diid you get her pa22word anyway  
TA: oh, that'2 ju2t lovely  
TA: you're 2tiill goiing two try two make me thiink iit'2 her  
TA: only two cru2h my heart agaiin, no doubt   
AA: s0llux, its n0t her, its me  
AA: its aradia   
TA: yeah riight. fuck off.  
TA: ii 2hould block you riight off, ii don't even know why ii'm not.   
AA: s0llux, it really is me!  
AA: i d0n't know h0w it happened, but i'm still here.  
AA: i think im a gh0st.   
TA: yeah 2ure  
TA: gho2t2 are just faiiry tale2  
TA: they're not real   
AA: but i am  
AA: i can pr0ve it   
TA: oh, 2ure. go ahead, 2erket.   
AA: well, ill have t0 think 0f s0mething 0nly we kn0w  
AA: 0h, i remember 0ne  
AA: what about 0ur time three m0nths ag0?  
AA: in my hive?   
TA: how the fuck do you know about that  
TA: there'2 no way you could have 2een that iin my miind  
TA: ii blocked iit from you   
AA: i kn0w it because im aradia, s0llux   
TA: took a hell of a lot of energy, two  
TA: why am ii 2tartiing two beliieve you?  
TA: ii mu2t be the most gulliible troll ever.   
AA: s0llux, what happened at my hive just n0w is 0utside 0f her capabilities  
AA: thats m0re evidence f0r it   
TA: ii'm pretty 2ure that aradia wa2 never that powerful a p2iioniic eiither  
TA: unless 2he wa2 holding out on me   
AA: thats true i wasnt  
AA: but n0w i am  
AA: i think dying must have amplified my p0wers   
TA: aradiia, ii2 iit really you?  
TA: ii2 there 2ome way that iit'2 po22iible that ii diidn't kiill you?   
AA: 0h n0 im definitely dead  
AA: i have t0 use my psi0nic p0wers t0 even type  
AA: my fingers g0 right thr0ugh the keys   
TA: okay fiine let2 a22ume ii've bought thii2  
TA: and that you're really a gho2t  
TA: why are you talkiing two me?  
TA: ii kiilled you.   
AA: s0llux, i d0nt blame y0u  
AA: it was vriskas fault  
AA: y0u had n0 c0ntr0l 0ver y0ur actions   
TA: but iif ii'd been more attentive, or 2tronger, ii could have 2topped her   
AA: y0u c0uldnt have kn0wn that she w0uld d0 that  
AA: and y0ure an incredibly str0ng psi0nic  
AA: serket is just stupidly p0werful   
TA: but ii kiilled you, aradiia  
TA: how can you even bear two talk to me   
AA: because ii stiill love you, 2ollux <3   
TA: and ii 2till love you two  
TA: but how could thii2 even work  
TA: iim aliive  
TA: you're a gho2t   
AA: i d0nt kn0w h0w itll work  
AA: but if y0u want t0 try, s0 do i  
AA: want t0 take that plunge, s0llux?   
TA: 0f c0urse i d0  
TA: <3  
TA: why are you typiing liike that anyway   
AA: i dunn0  
AA: it just... feels right  
AA: im 0k with it  
AA: i think  
AA: i think im 0k with a l0t of things   
TA: liike me kiilliing you?   
AA: i keep telling y0u i d0nt blame y0u f0r that, s0llux   
TA: yeah  
TA: but ii do  
TA: 2ee you iin a few miinute2  
TA: fiiguratiively 2peaking, of cour2e   
AA: see y0u!

\-- twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling apocalypseArisen [AA] \--

* * *

He's coming! He's coming here! And we're going to be together, even still! This is so wonderful. I should probably have something here to wait for him, really.

I raise my hand, and the fog begins to roll in from the forest. I pull it into my core, modelling it into the shape of my own body. I grin slightly as I look at my arm and see the fog flowing around inside it; concentrating hard, I solidify the surface as much as I can, making what to anyone else would look like a greyish-white version of me.

Unfortunately, though, I have no way to make this form speak. Raising my arm, I leave just a faint trail of white behind, tracing the words in the air. I briefly doodle, a heart and our names floating in midair. Then I swipe at them, drawing them into my misty form; yeah, this seems to be the most efficient method of communicating.

* * *

Once again I fly as fast as I can manage, not wanting to waste a single second I could spend with her. The landscape around me a mere blur, I take the route I remember so well from the relatively few times I've been to her hive... especially that one time. Man, Bicyclops was angry at me for being out for overnight when I'd told him I'd only be a few hours. It was certainly worth it, though, hehe.

I very quickly reach her hive, looking around as best I can with my psionic powers to try and find her. To no avail, though; she wouldn't be hiding from me, so I suppose I just can't see her with my vision twofold. I call out to her, my lisping voice echoing around the emptiness of the place. In response, the fog begins to roll in from the forest; it starts to gather itself into a vaguely trollian shape, quickly solidifying into that beautiful figure I know so well. A pale, rust-red light illuminates the form in certain places, adding a touch of color and letting me see the figure's eyes, lips, and horns clearly; she grins widely as tears of pure delight roll down my face.

* * *

I can't help but smile at the expression of joy on his face, though the tears are somewhat upsetting, despite their cause. I raise my hand and wipe away the mustard yellow liquid, leaving behind a film of water in its place. His tears floating in front of my hand, I roll them around my palm for a second before closing my fist, absorbing them into my semisolid form.

Still grinning widely, I raise my finger, trying to remember to write backward.

ARADIA: hi s0llux   
SOLLUX: hey aradiia!   
ARADIA: glad y0u c0uld make it!   
SOLLUX: wouldn't mii22 iit for the world.   
ARADIA: h0w d0 y0u like my mist f0rm?   
SOLLUX: iit'2 pretty good, but iit doe2n't do you ju2tiice.  
SOLLUX: then again, nothiing 2hort of you your2elf could do you ju2tiice.   
ARADIA: thats sweet!  
ARADIA: s0, s0llux, d0nt y0u have anything t0 greet me?  
SOLLUX: of cour2e ii do!

* * *

Suddenly, her wraithlike avatar swoops down towards me, wrapping its strangely solid, if cold, arms around me. I embrace her in return, wishing I could hold her physical form but knowing it's impossible. The misty form is cold, causing my skin to break out in goosebumps; she obviously notices, and suddenly a feeling of warmth spreads over my body; she's presumably stimulating the sensors in my skin or something with her psychic powers but I don't care, I just love this feeling. She grins, and suddenly her lips are on mine; the psychic imprint of a kiss is as close to bliss as I've ever come, and I kiss back, hoping she can somehow feel it.

Perhaps, just perhaps, this will all work out for the best.

* * *


End file.
